_WORLD WATCH______________________________
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Ukraine ________________
Answering Orthodox charges
Prelate seeks peace among Eastern churches
The Byzantine Catholic bishop of a new exarchate (diocese) in Ukraine has rebutted the complaints of a local Orthodox prelate that the creation of the new exarchate is an example of Catholic “expansionism” in Ukraine.
Bishop-elect Stepan Menok, who has been named to head the newly established exarchate of Donetsk and Kharkiv, responded to comments by the Orthodox Metropolitan Ilarion, who said he could see “hardly any objective reasons for the establishment of the new ‘uniate’ exarchate.” The Orthodox prelate had claimed there were very few Catholics in the eastern Ukraine region.
In fact, Bishop-elect Menok observed, there are 37 Byzantine Catholic parishes already registered in the area, with four more now in the process of registration. He allowed that his Orthodox counterpart might not be fully acquainted with these statistics.
However, the Ukrainian Catholic leader downplayed his disagreement with Metropolitan Ilarion. “We need to understand that a struggle between confessions of the Eastern rite, which recognize different patriarchs, will not do us any good,” he said. “Attacking each other is hardly becoming.”